Impact 2021 A record breaking year for FareShare South West including our FoodStock 2020 Emergency Winter Operation MARCH 2020 - MARCH 202 1 1
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2020-21
A M ESSAGE FROM OUR CEO In March 2020, we were just gearing up to celebrate a major milestone: delivery of surplus food for 1 million meals in a year. It was a celebration we had to cut short. As I write this in March 2021 after an extraordinary year for FareShare South West, our reports tell us that we delivered food for an incredible 6 million meals in the last year. Behind that huge figure lie a lot of sleepless nights, hundreds of committed volunteers, a supportive community and a staff team I am proud to say stepped up to the relentless challenges of delivering major, regionwide emergency food operations throughout the pandemic. We launched food warehouses in football stadiums and former bed showrooms, overhauled entire processes and worked with inspirational frontline organisations who delivered food to thousands of people in their communities. Many of those 6 million meals were delivered to stop the short-term threat of hunger, but in doing so stopped the most vulnerable from falling into more complex situations of food poverty and debt. As restrictions lift, we are bringing those emergency operations that were built on temporary resources to a close. Crucially, at the end of March 2021, the DEFRA-funded food we had been distributing ended, and that has played a key role in our decision to return to a surplus-only model. Despite this, we remain open to being part of future emergency infrastructure for the region should there be a surge in need or renewed crisis, but to do so would need significant support from key partners.
Already, we are working hard with councils, communities and charities to ensure we can deliver surplus food enough to meet the current known need, which is much higher than pre-pandemic times. To meet the current need is a monumental challenge in itself. We know our surplus model provides a sustainable and long-term solution for frontline organisations who feed the most vulnerable but to operate this model at the levels needed we will continue to rely heavily on donations, support from our community and crucially, surplus food. The end of lockdown doesn’t spell the end of hunger. Food insecurity rates have soared with the pandemic, and we know it will be years until we understand the full extent of its impact on communities. While so many struggle to make ends meet, we believe more than ever that no good food should go to waste. We are calling on South West food companies to step forward and send their quality surplus food to us, at a time when it can have a huge impact. We know surplus food can change lives, but also support charities in a struggling third sector back to full strength. We emerge into 2021 a different charity to this time last year, and with your support, that change and growth can be here to stay. To all our new and existing supporters, we thank every one of you for your commitment to our cause. 1
WE BELIEVE NO GOOD FOOD SHOULD GO TO WASTE We take quality surplus food from food companies, and redistribute it to frontline charities working with vulnerable people in the South West.
Against a backdrop of soaring food insecurity, we had a responsibility to step up and serve our community. 2
OUR BENEFICIARIES Charities directly supporting BAME people and refugees 1%
Projects supporting the homeless 7%
Pre-school & school children 13%
Care leavers & NEETS* 1%
Other** 7%
Projects supporting isolated elderly people 5% Charities supporting people with Drug or Alcohol addiction 2%
Organisations supporting families and children on low incomes 65%
*Not in Education, Employment or Training **People with mental or physical health problems, people living with life limiting conditions, ex-offenders, lone parents. “Since the pandemic more and more people have been finding it difficult to provide food for their families and we’ve seen a huge increase in demand for food parcels. Prior to FoodStock we weren’t able to provide so many parcels and relied only on small donations from churches and smaller supporters and we were having to buy in some items, which is obviously not sustainable.” Julie Dempsey, B.O.S.H 3
DEVON & CORNWALL Expansion into two new regions of the South West Preparatory work for long-term expansion into Devon & Cornwall began in May 2020. However, the pandemic and its impacts meant emergency redistribution into the two counties was necessary - with 650 tonnes of emergency food delivered to the region before our more sustainable project was launched in October 2020. Impact in this region during the crisis period was significant in large part thanks to many of the 48 partner charities who received our emergency food creating their own collection points which served a further 147 beneficiary projects.
“The food supplied by FareShare South West has been a serious lifeline for so many of our beneficiaries in Cornwall” John Lakey, Co-Director at Cultivate Cornwall who have delivered over 200 tonnes of emergency food for the area during the pandemic.
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It was also possible thanks to the support of national charities British Red Cross and RE:ACT who partnered with us to operate an emergency distribution hub in Exeter. The success of the sustainable long-term expansion has been possible thanks to the work of Shelley Wright, our Devon and Cornwall Development Manager, and our key partner charities, Exeter Food Action, Cultivate Cornwall and Love Your Neighbour. These partnerships have helped us to fully understand the contexts of the areas, to build a sustainable infrastructure and to ensure all corners of these counties are reached by FareShare South West food.
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IMPACT IN NUMBERS: MARCH 2020 - MARCH 2021 Food for 6.1 million meals was delivered - SIX TIMES as much as in 2019! Over 50,000 vulnerable people have benefited from our food across the region 2598 tonnes of food distributed across the South West - including 800 tonnes to Devon and Cornwall 29,481 volunteer hours given 2,985 tonnes CO2 avoided 416 frontline charities, schools and community groups supported An estimated £5million in average retail value saved by charity partners 5
STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINE 416 FRONTLINE CHARITIES, SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS ADAPT TO FEED THOSE MOST IN NEED. Here are a few examples of those working hard to make sure their communities are provided for. Tom Gould says “We never set out to be a big food distributor, but we found that if the need is there you need to do it! And together with the collaboration of local organisations, this can become a reality.”
TOM GOULD, IGNITE LIFE, BRISTOL & SURROUNDS Ignite Life is an organisation which provides mentoring services, family safeguarding and welfare and crisis support services aimed at helping mainly young people and families. They provide life changing opportunities and are able to enhance and plug any gaps in existing provision of these services. The effects of the pandemic soon took hold meaning they were unable to deliver their key services and so turned their hands to food provision. 6
As winter approached, they were still unable to hold group or one or one mentoring sessions, and so continued with food provision as their main form of support. To facilitate this, they reserved a space at the Ashton Gate warehouse for their own pallets to be able to provide for their communities and families right across Bristol and the surrounding areas. “The social value of the provision of food for families is overwhelmingly positive... not only do households save money on their bills, when they’ve been faced with redundancies and uncertainty, it creates a safety net that they can fall back on” “We’ve provided 75,000 family meals this year! - this is in large part to the FareShare South West collaboration, we can’t thank you enough”
SALLY AGGETT, NEW LEAF EXETER New Leaf Exeter is a Devon Partnership NHS Trust’s Vocational Rehabilitation Service and is the only one of its kind in the UK. Their service has developed over the years delivering therapy, training and supported employment to adults living with a mental health condition who are working towards paid employment now or in the future. It is a referable service with 5 different vocational departments: horticulture, woodworking, clothing, printing and catering. Through the pandemic none of these services have been available and so Sally Aggett, who runs the catering workshops, started supporting all of their clients through the delivery of food parcels with food from FareShare South West - carefully put together with the ingredients and a recipe for a home cooked meal. She takes photos of her cooking process and prints it out for each recipient, making it an interactive and personal support experience. One of their beneficiaries was asked if receiving a catering pack increased their confidence in cooking for themselves replied: “Yes, but more so for my son [who lives with autism]. It is something we do together, it’s very rewarding. It raises his confidence & helps vary his diet”
PR AYAG R AJPUR A, THE STABLE CAFE, WESTON-SUPER-MARE Prayag Rajpura runs one of the best cafes in Weston-super-Mare; The Stable Cafe (CIC) where the innovative menu is ever changing and the welcome is always warm. Only opening in January 2020 meant that their main work of serving up nice hot home-made food to local customers (who pay what they think the food is worth) had to be put on the back burner. As Prayag has been an integral part of the community for many years, he felt he had to do something to help with food provision. They therefore immediately started putting their efforts into making up thousands of packed lunches for children from the surrounding schools. His team is made up of local people who would normally encounter barriers to employment and are in need of vocational support and training. Throughout the pandemic they’ve delivered over 20,000 packed lunches, and 2,500 food parcels made up of ambient food plus fresh fruit and veg from our warehouses - committing their time and energy to respond to the crisis of the lack of food provision for families around Weston. Prayag says: “The work has given our team some purpose - it has helped them to feel like they’re able to give something back” 7
OUR VOLUNTEERS THE FORCE BEHIND FARESHARE SOUTH WEST “From March 2020 to April 2021 approximately 2,598 tonnes of food was sorted and dispatched by the teams of amazing volunteers at both our warehouses, with around 800 tonnes of that heading to Devon and Cornwall”
Marcus Wells
Carly Weeks (MACE Construction) 8
Emily Yates
Volunteers are the backbone of FareShare operations and we’re lucky to have some incredible people offering up their time for us at FareShare South West... below are three cases in point of these Food Heroes. We also received fantastic support from many different Bristol corporates who provided teams of volunteers from their staff to help with the packing of hundreds of food parcels, plus the hard work put in from interns from Sixteen Job Coaching who have made a real difference.
MARCUS WELLS
EMILY YATES
“I’ve been volunteering at FareShare South West for 18 months and have been involved in most aspects of the daily operations, from delivery driving to order picking. I love that FareShare South West is able to redistribute excellent food which would otherwise be thrown away, which in turn enables charities to function without the large costs normally associated with buying food. FareShare South West also gives great work experience opportunities to people who have experienced various traumas in their lives. FareShare South West, a great place to volunteer with fun and camaraderie amongst other volunteers and staff, knowing at the end of a hard shift, you’ve managed to make a real difference!”
“I started volunteering at FareShare Southwest for a number of reasons. When I was young, me and my mum used foodbanks to get us through difficult times. We were always treated with such kindness and we were given food that was invaluable at the time. I had a chance to see first-hand the good work that organisations, such as FareShare do for vulnerable communities. At the start of the pandemic, I was struggling with my mental health, I ended up giving up my job due to stress. I didn’t know what to do. I came across FareShare and I realised it was a chance for me to give back some of that kindness I had been shown as a child. Delivering food to charities and communities gives me a real sense of purpose and it’s great to know that we’re not only helping people but we’re also saving food that would otherwise be thrown away. I’m so lucky to have found FareShare and see all the amazing work FareShare does”
CARLY WEEKS “During the early days of the pandemic I reflected on how I used my time and what my priorities were. I realised that I didn’t have anything which gave me purpose outside of my family and career – volunteering and being involved with FareShare has provided that! It’s also been a great opportunity to meet new people and work alongside colleagues who we wouldn’t be seeing as regularly as before the pandemic. You feel like you’re making a big difference, it’s enjoyable and everyone is so friendly! Being able to help so many people at once is really rewarding - packing boxes that will go to 120 people in one shift is brilliant”
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Impact Timeline
It’s been a year of non-stop emergency operations and new challenges, but we are proud of the way we have stepped up to tackle the food crisis. O P E N UP TO S EE A TIMELINE OF OUR YE A R !
March 20th: Pandemic hits, our first emergency operation begins and our Coronavirus Emergency Appeal launches. While supermarket shelves were empty, surplus food soars including from the hospitality sector. We were the only organisation in the region with the capacity to redistribute.
Donations from supermarkets via FareShare UK, DEFRA-funded food and heightened wholesale surplus means our warehouses are operating at 6 times their normal capacity. We extend emergency food support beyond our existing reach into Devon and Cornwall to meet emergency food need.
2020
The FareShare network of warehouses had not reached Devon & Cornwall before 2020. We step up our work to ensure frontline charities receive emergency food along with the rest of the region.
MAR
APR
M AY
April 8th: We launch an emergency warehouse in Ashton Gate Stadium, while still continuing our weekly deliveries to over 350 charities. April 24th: We partner with Tuffley Court Community Association to deliver emergency food to Gloucestershire.
“Without FareShare we simply wouldn’t be able to do what we do. Our weekly FareShare deliveries have enabled us to have a huge impact – particularly at our food pantry which now supplies nutritious, affordable food to over 40 people each week. Without this support many of our members just wouldn’t have enough to eat, and because of the additional ambient food deliveries FareShare have been able to provide, our members always leave well stocked for the week ahead” Jo Dolby, Oasis Hub, Bath
August 10th: We leave Ashton Gate Football Stadium, and set up a new pop-up warehouse ready for winter. At the end of the summer we realised our responsibility to prepare for another wave of emergency need. Without the same resources as the first wave, we needed to pull together food, infrastructure and an action plan- fast.
July 12th: In partnership with The British Red Cross and RE:ACT, we launch an Emergency Collection Point in Exeter to unlock further food distribution into Devon & Cornwall. July 27th: We deliver food for 30,000 meals in food parcels to Bristol elderly people with Bristol Community Transport.
JUNE
June 30th: Food for 1 million meals delivered!
J U LY
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As a winter wave of Covid becomes more likely, we ramp up planning for another emergency operation. September 17th: We win a Bristol Life Award!
“With the schools shut we contacted FareShare South West about extra food deliveries that parents could collect, as soon as they said they were willing to help we jumped at the opportunity. The silver lining of Covid is that it has made people realise children being fed is not guaranteed, even here in the UK. The wider social issue, and something that rarely gets addressed, is why are children better fed in school then at home” Ben Roberts, E-ACT Academy Primary Schools, Bristol
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October 26th: Our FoodStock 2020 campaign is launched to raise awareness and support for our winter operation. We start building a winter food stockpile of over 100 tonnes of food.
Two central elements of FoodStock 2020 are to deliver pre-made food parcels to save frontline charities’ resources, and also to deliver food in bulk to regional collection hubs across the South West.
We call on our Bristol community to support us with volunteer hours, donations and logistics support. October 29th: Launch of long-term food delivery into Devon & Cornwall for the first time!
PT
OCT
November 9th: FoodStock 2020 is launched! November 16th: First 40 pallets are delivered to Devon & Cornwall for FoodStock 2020. November 30th: First ever food parcel packing operation begins for FareShare South West, streamlining workload for frontline charities, schools and community groups.
Significant increase in corporate volunteer hours to help with parcel packing.
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December 3rd: Local collection point set up in partnership with Mercy In Action to allow more food parcels to reach groups in Bath. December 14th: Food parcels take on a festive twist, providing treats as well as essentials for families struggling during this period.
From 1st November 2020 until 14th December 2020, over 277 tonnes of food is redistributed by us! This compares to just 80 tonnes in the same period in 2019.
March 1st: With DEFRA-funded food coming to a close and emergency funding ending, we must close off our emergency food operations after an entire year. We begin work with partner charities to develop long-term, sustainable food support models.
Mid-January, 16 FOOD clubs are running across Bristol supporting up to 1,000 of Bristol’s most vulnerable families, all thanks to a partnership between national charity Family Action, FareShare South West and Feeding Bristol. January 25th: In response to new lockdown announcements, we extend FoodStock 2020 to March 31st.
March 31st: FoodStock 2020 delivers food for children’s Holiday Projects over Easter.
January sees the highest food output in the history of our charity, with 346 tonnes of food being delivered from our warehouses across the region.
FEB
Our target for FoodStock 2020 of delivering enough food for 1 million meals more than doubled to 2.5 million meals, and 15,000 food parcels.
MAR
2021
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March 31st: Food for over 6 million meals delivered in 12 months, and food for 3.5 million meals delivered through FoodStock 2020 during the winter months.
Our emergency food has done more than provide a short-term sticking plaster to the food crisis. In many cases, our charity partners tell us that this food has helped stop people from falling into worse situations of food poverty and debt.
“FOOD Clubs have had a positive impact since first being introduced in Bristol. With the help of FareShare South West, they are able to provide nutritious food at a price that is affordable, and often in areas that have limited access to those resources. During the covid-19 pandemic, the number of FOOD clubs grew out of a need to provide food during the crisis, but their long-term impact will be beneficial to improving food security within the city. We are delighted that the 16th club has opened, and we look forward to growing the offer and partnership in the future.” Ped Asgarian, Feeding Bristol
WHAT’S NEXT WHILE LOCKDOWN MAY BE RELENTING, WE KNOW FOOD INSECURITY STATISTICS ARE SOARING. While this is the case, we believe it is more shocking than ever that over 250,000 tonnes of quality food still go to waste each year - most before even reaching the supermarkets. As the largest food redistribution charity in our region, we know we must do even more to unlock surplus food, develop targeted programmes to tackle food poverty, and reach new geographical areas of our region. After a year of emergency operations, all built on temporary and borrowed resources, we are working to secure growth to ensure we don’t drop back to pre-covid food levels of operation. Our community needs us now more than ever to supply affordable, quality food for the vulnerable people they support - while saving front line charities millions of pounds each year from their stretched charity budgets.
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The only way we can grow our service is with support from our community. We face increasing fundraising challenges to deliver on this growth, and rely on donations to keep operations running.
Just some of our projects our team are working on in the coming year include:
Launch of a second, permanent warehouse in South Bristol, plus launch of new warehouses and distribution hubs across Devon & Cornwall. 30% increase of surplus food. We are calling on South West food companies to send their surplus to us. Delivery of targeted regional programmes in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Bath & North East Somerset, Devon & Cornwall, working strategically with local authorities, funders and partner charities. Development of an Employability Programme, supporting young people with training and skills to help them into work- to launch fully in 2022. 11
SUPPORTERS & KEY WORKERS LOCAL COMPANIES WHO HAVE HELPED US MAKE A HUGE IMPACT. Firstly, we need to thank our brilliant funders who have stepped up to support and stabilize our charity in a period of great need. We are grateful to our funders for their fast response and agility throughout the pandemic, which in turn enabled us to level up operations and support hundreds of frontline charities with a food supply. We especially want to thank John James Bristol Foundation, The National Benevolent Charity, St John’s Foundation, WRAP, Quartet Community Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund. Field and Flower have been partnered with FareShare South West for the past 2 years and have been fundraising for us through their customers in the last year. By mid-March 2021, along with their customers, they had donated enough money for food for 250,000 meals! They have also been donating their surplus free-range meat and fish once a week to send out to our member charities.
Ashton Gate Football Stadium first offered FareShare South West space within the stadium for packing parcels at the start of the pandemic. As the situation intensified and the need increased, they offered the old Dream’s Warehouse for us to continue our emergency operations, providing us with more space and longer-term security to plan out operations.
“We’re delighted to continue supporting FareShare South West. They are invaluable to the charities and communities they support so we hope this will help them continue their exceptional work” Peter Smith, Ashton Gate Football Stadium 12
ALD have been instrumental in helping us deliver food to Devon and Cornwall. Special thanks goes to Stewart Warr and his team for supplying their brand new transporter vans to us, allowing us to reach charities across the region reliably and efficiently.
Essential Trading, Hobbs House Bakery & Ginsters have been three local food companies who have come on board with FareShare South West to donate their surplus food, as well as some non-surplus food in the form of Hot Cross Buns! They have all recognised the need to help in the struggle against food insecurity within our region, and being able to do so at a local level strengthens the network and community.
Kambe Events / Shambala In November 2020 FareShare South West and the team who brings us the incredible Shambala Festival collaborated to supply the workforce needed to operate the FoodStock 2020 campaign. Their hard work ethic, constant high energy and amazing logistical and organisational experience have been essential in helping get the food parcels and pallets out from the Ashton Gate Warehouse to the hundreds of charities who have been busy helping reduce food insecurity around the South West this winter. Christine one of the warehouse supervisors during this time has said:
“Incredible opportunity to work with FareShare South West knowing and understanding the difference the work we do is making to people’s lives throughout the pandemic. It’s an honour to have been a part of that - a small cog in the wheel responding to the bigger crisis” 13
THANK YOU TO THE A MA Z I N G FU N D R A I SE RS
The level of support FareShare South West has received from individual donors over the last year has been phenomenal. Every amount has helped us achieve our goals and much more, from the one off donations, monthly installments and some incredible fundraising efforts.
Here are two of the incredible efforts made to raise money for FareShare South West: An Under-9’s Football Club led by Matt Cotton in Tewkesbury successfully raised over £4,000 (incl. Gift Aid) for FareShare South West and NHS Charities by virtually travelling to their favourite football stadiums, clocking up the miles on foot, bike, skate - whatever they liked as long as it was active! They had 561 miles to complete and if they added on 15 minutes of football practice an extra mile was gained. This has meant they raised enough money to fund food for 8,000 meals! Jennie Hahn bravely supported us by raising almost £500, equating in enough food for 1,880 meals, by shaving all of her hair off! She is braver than many of us plus the new look really does suit her! 14
There was a significant increase in fundraising engagement following Marcus Rashford’s incredible national campaigning this year, which led to a change in government policy and public awareness of child hunger. Something we are incredibly thankful for as it has highlighted the need and helped our charity members, such as schools and family centres, provide for their communities. There is a long way to go to ensure all children have equal access to a nutritious diet, and over 50% of all our food goes to projects supporting children in low-income families. Without donations like these we simply could not operate on the scale we do - a scale we have never worked on before.
Tewkesbury Town Panthers U 9’s Football Team
Jenny Hahn
“The support we have had from our community has blown us away - from volunteers, to offers from local companies to individual donations. The community spirit, the positivity and the ‘can-do’ attitude is making so much possible. There is so much hope, even in these difficult times” Phoebe Ruxton, Head of Development If you would like to support and fundraise for FareShare South West email us at fundraising@faresharesouthwest.org.uk or call us on 0117 957 2220 15
OUR FUNDERS & SUPPORTERS
We would also like to thank our other valued supporters including the following major trust donors: The Anchor, Dolphin and Grateful Societies, The Mabel Cooper Charitable Trust, The Barnwood Trust, Thirty Percy, The Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust, The Truemark Trust, The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust, The Pantheon Charitable Trust and the Spielman Charitable Trust and all our other valued trust supporters.
And our valued Corporate Supporters including: Aberdeen Standard Investments, ALD Automotive, Arobase Creative, Bertha’s Pizza, Bluefield Services, Burges Salmon, fieldandflower, Grundons, Hargreaves Lansdown Foundation, Osborne Clarke, Plimsoll Productions, Purple Fish Agency, Rathbones (Bristol Office), Rockpool Digital, Smith & Williamson, Womble Bond Dickinson & Wilmott’s Transport.
FOOD & LOGISTICS PARTNERS We would also like to thank: Arthur David, Bristol University, Corsham Food Bank, East Bristol Food Bank, Essential Trading, Exeter Food Bank, Fruition Bristol, Gate Gourmet, Hobbs House, Hovis, John Lewis, North Cotswolds Food Bank, Pieminister, Somerset Larder, Stute Foods, Sureway, Real Wrap, Total Produce, TrueStart Coffee, University West of England, Wessanen. 16
“For Gloucester Food Consortium, there’s a huge range of groups that make use of the FoodStock deliveries. We started by taking 10 pallets of food to deliver out to the whole of Gloucester, which has been utterly essential. Having the FoodStock pallets has allowed us to be so much more versatile with how we can help families.” Jennie Layhe, Gloucester Food Consortium 17
“To not have to worry about food at this time has kept me sane and has vastly improved our mental and physical health. Your driver is the only contact I have with another human at the moment and I look forward to our chat each week.”
“Whoever you are, and it’s strange to write to someone I’ve never met who has done so much for me, thank you for your kindness and care in such vulnerable and frightening times. My daughter and I will be forever grateful to you and hope one to repay the kindness” 18
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Email us on info@faresharesouthwest.org.uk Visit online at faresharesouthwest.org.uk And call us on 0117 954 2220
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Registered charity address:
www.faresharesouthwest.org.uk
FareShare South West, Unit 4
info@faresharesouthwest.org.uk
Little Ann St, St Judes BS2 9EB
/FareShareSouthWest
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@faresharesouthwest
Registered charity number:
@FareShareSW
1125905